Had a thread on the old forum about this. Norwegian characters not displaying correctly. The latest development in this ongoing problem is that when emptying the data cache all characters are suddenly fine, but after a while the error creeps back. Does this make diagnosing the problem any easier?
Hi @geirrosset,
I wonder if something outside of OJS is modifying your cache files; what file permissions are you using in the cache subdirectory?
Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team
Cache folder is 755. Is that sufficient?
Hi @geirrosset,
The solution will involve more than just the numeric permissions – you’ll also have to check that file ownership suits the SAPI your server is using to run PHP scripts.
Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team
Now this is where I’ll need more help. This is above and beyond what I know. Any way for someone to guide me through the steps needed?
Hi @geirrosset,
Start with the FAQ entry on the subject:
http://pkp.sfu.ca/wiki/index.php/PKP_Frequently_Asked_Questions#I.27m_having_file_permission_problems.3B_how_should_I_set_file_permissions.3F
Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team
Here it is: Server API CGI/FastCGI
So the files and folder mentioned should be readable by our server user. How do we set that? Do we need to run a terminal and use linux commands?
Geir
Hi Geir,
What do you see on the existing cache files for permissions and ownership? Run e.g.:
ls -ls cache/
You should also be able to see this via e.g. a file manager in CPanel if you’re not familiar with the command line.
Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team
This is taking a bit of time, but now I’m back…
Most of the files in the cache directory are -rw-r–r–, but some are -rw-r-----, and the sub folders are drwxr-xr-x
The cache directory itself is drwxr-xr-x
Geir
Our server/ftp user is the owner.
Hi @geirrosset,
Hmm, unfortunately I’m drawing a bit of a blank. OJS always generates its cache files the sme way, and it appears to be doing so correctly, so I don’t think the gradual corruption is coming from there; however, your file permissions and ownership sound like they’re decently secure, so something else on the same server shouldn’t be to blame, unless it’s running under your account. Could you try saving the corrupted files before you delete then compare them against the re-generated versions to see exactly what’s getting modified? That might provide a hint.
Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team
At 14:53 I copied the whole cache folder, the page had errors. The files were time stamped 12:52. I then emptied the cache. Errors were gone. But when viewing the cache folder in my ftp client none of the files had new time stamps. Seemingly no files have changed? Is there more than one cache?
Hi @geirrosset,
The cache/ directory is the only cache.
Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team
So is that the end of the road then? Is there any way to migrate all content to a fresh install of OJS. I suspect that this is a cumulative error that has crept in over the past 4 or five upgrades.
Hi @geirrosset,
It’s tough to debug remotely, and in this case you’re experiencing tough-to-reproduce and seemingly random corruption, which is doubly difficult. I still suspect something outside of OJS is causing this trouble – a database management process, or cache file corruption, or something similar – but without any knowledge of your server environment I can only try to eliminate some vague hypotheses (like file permissions in your cache directory being overly permissive). Unfortunately I’ve run out of these.
Anything you can do to pin down the problem into specifics would be helpful.
Meanwhile, if you suspect some changes to OJS might have caused this, I’d suggest using the standard diff
tool to compare your OJS against the stock version from the .tar.gz
file. That will identify any differences for closer scrutiny.
Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team
Thanks again. Unfortunately I am in over my head here. There is something wrong and I can’t trace it back to any one action we have taken. All I remember is that a few revisions ago we were having trouble with Norwegian characters after our ISP upgraded PHP, and to fix it we downgraded the php version on our server (which really meant moving the entire install to a different server). During one upgrade we had an unspecified database error, but as the site was still functioning afterwards we just moved on.
For our last upgrade we paid someone to take care of it as they had a 100% satisfaction guarantee. But as the problem was either database or php related they did not cover that and the problem has stayed with us.
Now my question is this. Is there anyone out there you know of who we can pay to do a full overhaul of our system (given the access needed of course). Our journals do not have the economy to pay for OJS hosting, so we need to run our own server, but we would really like to get this problem fixed so we do not find ourselves in a dead end in two years with hundreds of articles posted and no way to migrate them because of some old problem.
Best regards
Geir
Hi @geirrosset,
Sorry, this is a tricky one to pin down.
Can you try to describe how frequently the problem occurs? Is it consistent, or only occasional? And can you confirm that deleting the cache files so that they can be re-created solves the problem (temporarily)?
Thanks,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team
Hello. Long break for summer. We have pretty much given up on this. We have no idea where to start and no immediate access to the server, so any changes on the back end rely on our ISP to get back to us (and they don’t always know what or how to do what we need).
I was thinking of a workaround. Can a script be written that empties the data cache folder once every x hours? Or is it possible to disable the cache altogether?
Best regards
Geir